News From Human Shields - April 2003

Saturday 26th April, 2003

On April 26th the last of the Human Shield volunteers arrived from Baghdad in Amman. Although we didn't succeed in the main objective of stopping this illegal and immoral war we may well have played a part in keeping the infrastructure of Baghdad intact, keeping the misery of millions at bay. We will never know for sure the impact we had but suffice to say that all the sites we were stationed at were targeted and hit by the U.S. in the last Gulf War. This time only one of the sites was hit; a communications site that we had vacated one day earlier. Unfortunately we cannot say the same for hundreds of facilities throughout Iraq, in particular, Basra. We simply did not have the numbers to station ourselves throughout Iraq.

We have proven that a rag-tag bunch of people from all walks of life can bypass our undemocratic governments, act and affect change. We have learnt a lot from this action and we are in no doubt that this movement is only just beginning.

To the elite of this world: fuck you we're gonna monkey wrench your little party.

Thursday 24th April, 2003

Tom Hurndall is in a deep coma and there has been no change since he was shot in the head on Friday 11th. The doctors say he is unlikely to pull through.

Saturday 12th April, 2003

White Westerner shot in the head and left brain-dead by Israeli sniper

Our heartfelt condolences go out to Tom Hurndall and his family.

On the 11th April Tom Hurndall, a 21 year old from England, was shot in the head and left brain-dead by an Israeli sniper. Tom was trying to save two small Palestinian girls from the gunfire of Israel soldiers firing into the houses and streets of a refugee camp called Yibna.

Tom was wearing an orange fluorescent jacket with reflective stripes, and was in full view of the tower where the coward (sniper) was situated. The British Embassy had been informed of his presence, who had in turn informed the Israeli Military.

Tom was moving to help the two little girls when an Israeli soldier in the tower, about 300 metres in front of him, shot a high calibre sniper bullet directly into his head. Tom was eventually transferred in an ambulance to Europa Hospital in Khanunis which took about 30 minutes because of an Israeli road block on the way. Without this obstruction it would only take 7 minutes. He is currently on full life support and in a head cast.

This is the world brown Arab Palestinians live in daily. Tragically brown Arab Palestinians don't constitute the "PR problem" that white Western people do:

Western Human Shields a PR Nightmare for Israel

See the following websites for more information:
Electronic Infitada
International Solidarity Movement

"Not again": Eyewitness Joe Smith writes about the shooting of Tom Hurndall

Tom's father demands probe

Wednesday 9th April, 2003

Prepare Now For Iraqi Resistance to U.S. Occupation

Saddam's regime is on the brink, a joyous occasion to be sure, after years of tyranny, supported by the US, UK and other western governments while committing his worst crimes, and then 12 years of sanctions which made his regime stronger and ordinary Iraqi people weaker. Sadly it means nothing to the thousands killed by US and UK bombing campaigns, the hundreds of thousands killed by sanctions and, if we take a cursory look at history we know that, despite what you'll be told by corporate media, it doesn't mean much for the future of those left alive either.

"If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist, you're a terrorist." George W. Bush

Since the Second World War the United States Government has bombed 21 countries. None of these bombing campaigns led to the establishment of humane democracies in the countries involved. What most of them did lead to was the crushing of any semblance of a challenge to North American dominance and capitalism, and democracy in most cases.

China (1945-46 & 1950-53) Korea (1950-53) Guatemala (1954, 1960, 1967-69) Indonesia (1958) Cuba (1959-61) Congo (1964) Peru (1965) Laos (1964-73) Vietnam (1961-73) Cambodia (1969-70) Lebanon (1983-84)

Grenada (1983) Libya (1986) El Salvador (right through the 1980s) Nicaragua (right through the 1980s) Panama (1989) Bosnia (1995) Iraq (1991-2003) Sudan (1998) Former Yugoslavia (1999) Afghanistan (2001-02)

How many more are they planning to bomb? Bush's advisers say Iraq is just a 'battle in the wider war'. They have named North Korea, Iran, and even Syria, Cuba and Libya as possible future targets. They call it a war without end.

The images you see on your TV will subside. The people celebrating on your screens, mostly of the Shiite majority will be forgotten just as those in Afghanistan and many other countries have been forgotten, while the US Government moves onto the next target. The US Government won't for a minute entertain the idea of Shiite (Islamic) self-determination in Iraq. Prepare now for the installation of a US puppet regime in place to ensure democracy does not ensue. Prepare now for US military occupation. Prepare now for US Evangelical Christian missionaries ("relief workers"). Prepare now for asset stripping of oil reserves by US corporations and lucrative reconstruction contracts awarded to US corporations, all of which have close ties to the US Government. Prepare now for Iraqi resistance to US occupation.

The Star-Spangled Blindfold draped over the head of a Saddam Hussein statue by a young US marine pretty much sums up the hidden imperial nature of North American motives. Prepare now for the next target. What will the pretext be? Another terrorist attack?

The lesson learnt by those on the US Government hit list? Arm yourself and arm yourself to the hilt with Nuclear weapons because, judging by the different ways in which North Korea and Iraq have been dealt with, that's, ironically, the only way you might avoid a US lead invasion in the short term.

Christiaan Briggs

Polls taken in the U.S. in the 6 months leading up to the invasion of Iraq indicated that of those polled 60-70% feared Saddam would attack the U.S. A poll taken in early January 2003, in the U.S., indicated that two thirds of respondents thought they had a good grasp of the issues surrounding the Iraqi crisis. However, half of those surveyed said one or more of the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackers were Iraqi citizens. A poll taken by Fox News in the U.S. on January 31 showed that 81% of respondents believed Saddam Hussein (an enemy of Osama bin Laden) has ties to the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

Tuesday 1st April, 2003

Latest reports from Human Shields in Baghdad
Human misery and suffering kindly brought to you by the "democratic governments" of the US, Britain and Australia.

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